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He demanded that we not get him any presents, but obviously we did. Before the winter break, we all pitched in and got him this super-high-tech barbeque that he and Julian have been drooling over for the last couple of months. Even though it’s January and kind of cold outside, the guys were so excited to use it that they brought over a bunch of meat and we had a barbeque birthday feast.
We sing happy birthday to Aiden again as he sits looking extremely uncomfortable, even more so than earlier today at lunch, and blows out his candles as quickly as possible. We sit in the family room to eat the cake, with a movie on in the background that no one’s really watching.
“Is it supposed to be crunchy?” Julian asks.
Jason and I look at each other, and his eyes are wide as he mouths “Eggshell” at me. I try not to laugh as I hold my finger to my lips and wink. It’ll be our secret.
“Um, yeah . . . we wanted it to have some texture. Right, Amelia?” Jackson says, casually putting down his own half-eaten cake and pushing it away. Jason and I do the same.
“That’s absolutely what we were going for,” I reply confidently, ignoring Aiden silently laughing beside me.
As the rest of the conversation carries on, I turn to Aiden. I don’t want to ruin his day, but he hasn’t said anything else about Andrew since we ate our pancakes together on Monday, and I keep itching to ask. They couldn’t possibly have just moved on and decided to leave us alone. We’re not that lucky. So when is the other shoe going to drop?
“Hey, have you heard anything else about Andrew or seen Harvey? Do you think they kind of forgot about us? Is that just wishful thinking?”
His facial expression turns grim, as if just the opposite is true.
“What, Aiden? What’s wrong?”
His face is blank. “Nothing, Amelia.”
I’ve gotten so used to Aiden not hiding his emotions from me that at this point, a blank face is his biggest tell that something’s wrong.
Placing my hand on his strong jaw, I force him to look at me. “Aiden?”
He studies me intensely, a debate happening behind his gray eyes. I can tell when he’s made his decision because he runs his hand through his hair and curses under his breath.
He stands up and pulls me with him, grabbing my arm and practically dragging me out of the room.
“I know where they’re going! Rhymes with shmirthday smex!!” Noah calls out after us with a laugh, immediately followed by a thud and an “Oomf!”
Someone, I’m guessing Annalisa or Charlotte, must’ve thrown a pillow at him. I follow Aiden up the stairs.
The last thing I hear is one of the twins expressing their disgust since they “Know what rhymes with ‘shmirthday smex,’” before Aiden closes the door to what looks like his office. It’s a small room, with a desk with a laptop sitting on it, as well as a big leather chair with wheels on the bottom.
“I didn’t want you to worry,” Aiden starts, opening a drawer to his desk and digging around. “You’ve been through so much and already have one madman to worry about, I didn’t want to stress you out.”
He pulls out an envelope and closes the drawer, turning to face me with clouded eyes. “But I’m not going to make that mistake, where I keep you in the dark to protect you.”
Hesitantly, I take the envelope from his outstretched hand. Is this the shoe that’s dropping? My throat tightens as I open the envelope and pull out . . . a birthday card?
This doesn’t make sense, and it certainly doesn’t warrant Aiden’s warnings, but his expression gives nothing away.
I’ve faced much more powerful, violent, and smarter opponents than you, Aiden, and I always come out on top. Keep the things most precious to you close, because this isn’t over until I’ve won. Send “Amelia” my regards.
Happy Birthday, son.
Aiden leans against the desk and crosses his arms. “It came this morning.”
“Have you shown anyone?” I read the card again, the words truly sinking in.
“Just you.”
“‘Keep the things most precious to you close,’” I read aloud. “He’s threatening the twins?”
His gaze burns as he looks at me. “And you.”
I freeze, staring at him as his words sink in.
“Anyone who looks at me knows I’m in love with you,” he continues. “He already went after you once.”
My eyes snag on my name and the quotes that are around it. Why are those quotes there? What is Andrew implying? And there’s the thing about him saying my name all weird and suspicious at the fundraiser. What does he know? What is he going to do with that information?
I slump into the big office chair as I set the card on the desk. I already had to worry about keeping my identity a secret to stay hidden from Tony, but now Andrew is specifically going after me to get to Aiden.
At this moment in time, I wonder which one is going to get to kill me first.
“Hey.” In one fluid motion, Aiden scoops me up as if I weigh nothing and sits down in the office chair, setting me down on his lap. “You know I won’t let anything happen to you, right?”
He’s reassured me of this countless times since New Year’s Eve, when everything went down. I rest my head on his solid chest and think back on all the times that Aiden’s been there for me. When he got Ethan Moore to take down the video he posted of me on the internet. When he dealt with my car after Kaitlyn and Ryan slashed my tires. When he drove an extra four hours so I could get my sleeping pills. When he pulled me out of an upside-down car and then saved me from being shot.
“He’s trying to get you to stop talking to the media and ruining his ‘good name.’ I can’t believe he’s not above trying to kill a teenage girl to get the message across.”
“He’s always been a crooked guy, and he’s finally gotten what he wanted most in the world: wealth and power. He’s not going to let me take that away from him like I did when he got my mom pregnant and was forced to have a shotgun wedding. So far, he’s tried to bribe me, pay me off, and then kill me. I don’t know if he’ll ever stop. But I won’t let him hurt you or my brothers.”
It’s impossible to be frightened here with Aiden, his muscled arms around me, my ear against his chest, the steady beat of his heart calming my own. “We’re not going to let him win. He’s in the spotlight now, I don’t think he’ll try anything.”
His thumb under my chin gently forces my head up to look at him. “Still, we should be careful, just in case. I’m not going to let him hurt you.”
“I know,” I reply, genuinely meaning it.
Today was so nice, Aiden and me just being ourselves without having to worry about drama or other issues. I want to get back to that. I need to get back to that. It might be my fault, because I did ask him about it, but he would’ve told me eventually. I’m making a promise to myself, right now, that I’m going to live out our remaining time together as normally as possible before I’m forced to move and we have to switch to long distance. I’m going to be with Aiden like a normal teenager and I’ll be damned if I let Aiden’s father ruin that.
